Conferences you won’t want to miss

Institutional Investment Insights 

This is an in-person conference brought to delegates by The Collaborative Exchange, one of SA’s leading advisory, research and events management companies in the investment industry. The event is specifically designed for senior pension CIOs, asset/liability specialists, DFMs, multi-managers, family offices and trustees, and will be held at The Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town on 30 September 2025.

The focus 

Under the theme The Big Reset: Managing Pension Fund Assets in a Dysfunctional World, the event content focuses on the strategies and frameworks needed to navigate today’s fractured markets and rebuild resilient pension fund portfolios. 

The conference will consist of various keynote presentations by local and international experts and panel discussions, where practitioners will rigorously debate approaches to rebooting risk frameworks, engineering liability-driven portfolio modules and unlocking alternative sources of alpha.

Core objectives  

• To help you recalibrate risk frameworks with advanced scenario modelling
• To offer deep insights into the world of evolving alternative assets and how they can be included in pension funds
• To assist you to glean the latest insights on fixed income assets, local and global equities, hedge funds and digital assets and how these are evolving in this dysfunctional world
• To provide delegates with a broad framework to rethink the opportunities that exist in this dysfunctional market.

Overview

The near-term path of global economies and markets is highly uncertain, but there are some attractive longer-term investment opportunities where a reasonable margin of safety currently exists. It’s clear that the old ‘time in the market, not timing’ argument is flawed on many levels, but with some extreme valuation anomalies present in today’s markets, being willing to stay exposed to attractively valued investments should prove rewarding in the long term. 

Ample networking breaks are woven throughout the programme, ensuring delegates connect directly with speakers and industry peers.

For more information visit the website or email info@thecollaborative.co.za

Financial Planning Summit

Now in its fourth year, The Financial Planning Summit is a conference that deals specifically with the business of financial planning and wealth management. The conference will be live streamed on 23 October and is titled ‘Reframing the Future of Financial Advice and Wealth Management’.

The financial planning and wealth management sectors are undergoing profound transformation, driven by regulatory shifts, evolving consumer behaviours, advances in automation and digital strategies, changing adviser demographics, and, most recently, the rapid rise of AI tools set to reshape the very foundations of how business is done.

A critical juncture 

With a large share of financial advisers nearing retirement, the industry is at a pivotal moment. A recent survey by The Collaborative Exchange found that around 20% of advisers are considering exiting their businesses without any succession plan in place, opening the door for acquisitions by other advisers or corporate transactions. This ageing adviser base brings both significant opportunities and pressing challenges.

The future of advice will likely be defined by:

• Forward-looking, data-powered automated insights, continually updated to changing needs and circumstances
• Individualised experiences tailored to the specific needs of clients right across the wealth spectrum
• Holistic advice across a broad spectrum of traditional and new products and services
• High levels of transparency and trust, underpinned by an overt duty of care
• Stronger, clearer value creation for all stakeholders, illustrated by more explicit links between advice, costs and benefits
• Enhanced global participation and accessibility, providing the benefits of advice to a wider audience.

There are clear parallels with other sectors, such as the automotive industry. Not all cars are self-driven yet, but innovations in engines, fuels, diagnostics, route planning and driver assistance are rapidly changing our ideas of what cars are for and how we use them – in the same way the 2020s will change our understanding of financial advice (and the business models that support them) and, in the process, overturn our assumptions about strategy, operations, regulation and success in the wealth industry.

Subjects covered 

• Financial planners/wealth managers do not know what their business is worth. Or do they? Types of valuation principles and setting your business up for succession planning or a sale.
• What can SA financial advisers/wealth managers learn from their counterparts in other countries about the business of financial planning/wealth management?
• Building your financial planning/wealth management technology stack to create back-office efficiencies.
• How ethics play a role when considering partnering with another business. How do you evaluate this?
• Beyond the benchmark: The alpha of human advice in a digital age.
• A conversation with Millennials/Gen Y and Gen Z. What they think of the financial industry.
• A conversation with a global Finfluencer and how they would take advantage of social media if they were a financial adviser/wealth manager.
• Building a future-ready financial advice/wealth management business. What successful businesses are doing to ensure their success.

For more information visit the website.